The Legal 500 Hall of Fame highlights individuals who have received constant praise by their clients for continued excellence. The Hall of Fame highlights, to clients, the law firm partners who are at the pinnacle of the profession. In Europe, Middle East and Africa, the criteria for entry is to have been recognised by The Legal 500 as one of the elite leading lawyers for seven consecutive years. These partners are highlighted below and throughout the editorial.
Click here for more details

Next generation lawyers

Find out which law firms are representing which Tax clients in Norway using The Legal 500's new comprehensive database of law firm/client relationships. Instantly search over 925,000 relationships, including over 83,000 Fortune 500, 46,000 FTSE350 and 13,000 DAX 30 relationships globally. Access is free for in-house lawyers, and by subscription for law firms. For more information, contact david.burgess@legal500.com.

Deloitte Advokatfirma AS fields ‚Äėa truly outstanding‚Äô team, which includes team head and M&A specialist Audun Fr√łland, managing partner Rolf Saastad, head of the business tax and transfer pricing team Hans-Martin J√łrgensen, indirect tax expert Alexander With and Tore Paulshus, who advises high-net-worth individuals. Opera Software, Strawberry Group and Circle K are clients.

Advokatfirmaet PricewaterhouseCoopers AS‚Äô full-service department, which is ‚Äėwithout doubt one of the best in Norway‚Äô, recently advised FSN on the tax elements of its acquisition of a stake in Active Brands, and represented Seabird Exploration in tax litigation against the Norwegian tax authorities. Trond Ingebrigtsen leads the general tax team, while Morten Beck heads the transfer pricing practice and St√•le Wangen is head of the international tax group. Clients also praise Knut Ekern, who is ‚Äėresponsive and highly practical in his approach‚Äô.

Advokatfirmaet Thommessen AS has ‚Äėincredibly strong legal and analytical skills‚Äô, which allows for ‚Äėthorough and clear advice that can always be relied upon‚Äô. Practice head Finn Backer-Gr√łndahl acted for PRA Group in a penalty tax dispute against the tax authorities; the department also handles transactional issues and cross-border mandates.

Ernst & Young Advokatfirma AS‚Äô department is led by √ėystein Arff Gulseth, and also counts Gjert Melsom and √ėyvind Hovland as names to note. Transfer pricing expert Marius Leivestad moved to the firm‚Äôs Johannesburg office.

Advokatfirmaet Schj√łdt AS‚Äô ‚Äėfantastic‚Äô department ‚Äėalways provides the right expertise and guidance‚Äô on corporate structuring and tax litigation. Team head Cecilie Amdahl handles corporate tax issues and Morten Sandli is ‚Äėvery focused on solving problems in the best possible way‚Äô; he advised Stangeskovene on a group restructuring. Hugo Matre, VAT expert Trond Larsen and Peter Hiorth also receive praise.

Advokatfirmaet Grette DA primarily focuses on the biotech, pharmaceutical, technology and energy sectors, advising a client roster, which includes Atlantic Petroleum, Oceanteam and Mettler Toledo. Practice head Thomas Aln√¶s focuses on corporate tax matters, and Tore Karlsson is recommended for VAT and international tax advice.

Amund Noss and Frode Olsen jointly lead Kluge Advokatfirma AS‚Äô tax litigation and advisory groups respectively. The group is highly regarded for its contentious expertise, and has a notable focus on the petroleum sector; clients include ConocoPhillips Norge, Total E&P Norge and Dong E&P Norge.

At Advokatfirmaet Simonsen Vogt Wiig, practice head Christian Svensen is ‚Äėsmart with a high level of integrity and extremely broad knowledge of the field‚Äô, and Tor Olaf Espeland handles tax compliance mandates. The team also deals with tax structuring matters, disputes and corporate issues.

Preben Aas leads the M&A-focused practice at DLA Piper, which was bolstered by the recruitment of corporate tax specialist Jonas Aartun from an in-house position. Clients include Ikea, Pfizer and IK Gruppen.

Clients praise Advokatfirma R√¶der DA‚Äôs team head Hans Olav Hemnes, who is ‚Äėa skilled professional who has a pragmatic and efficient yet sound approach to problems‚Äô. The practice covers corporate tax, transfer pricing, VAT and litigation. Einar Heiberg joined from Advokatfirmaet Seland Orwall DA.

Interview with...

Law firm partners and practice heads explain how their firms are adapting to clients' changing needs

Links

GC Powerlist: Ireland Teams

The Legal 500, Legal Business, GC Magazine and The In-House Lawyer event in Dublin brought a range of Ireland‚Äôs finest in-house teams together to celebrate the launch of this year‚Äôs GC Powerlist: Ireland Teams.

Links

GC Powerlist: Russia

The Legal 500, Legal Business, GC Magazine and The In-House Lawyer event in Moscow brought a range of Russia‚Äôs finest in-house counsel together to celebrate the launch of this year‚Äôs GC Powerlist: Russia Teams.

What should you tell your tax advisor? Or, more importantly, how much of
what you tell your advisor may be subject to disclosure without your
consent? Recent decisions by the European Court of Justice and the
English Court of Appeal have significant implications for tax advisors
and their clients.Wikborg Rein Newsletter: When it comes to tax advice, what is confidential?

From 1 November 2012 EU Regulation 236/2012 on short selling and certain aspects of credit default swaps will come into effect. Although the Regulation is within the scope of the EEA Agreement, Norway has not implemented the EU Regulation. Based on unofficial information from the Norwegian authorities, we expect the implementation process to be delayed until at least late 2013. Meanwhile, existing rules on short sale in Norway will continue to apply for transactions performed on the Norwegian market.¬†

The Ministry of Health and Care has recently issued a hearing letter proposing stringent restrictions on import of medicinal products for personal use. Among the actions proposed, is a general ban on the import of prescription drugs, and access for Customs to seize and destroy falsified or illegal medicinal products.

A new Act on the Patent Office and Industrial Property Rights Appeals Commission (the Patent Office Act) will be enacted and come into effect on 1st January 2013. The current Act on the Industrial Property Protection Board was enacted in 1910, and time for a complete reform had come.

In 2011 it was expected that new provisions for competition clauses, customer clauses and non-recruitment clauses would come into force. As early as June 2010, the Department of Employment sent a proposal on new provisions in the Working Environment Act for comments.

In accordance with the provisions of the Act on Medicines and
the appurtenant Regulation on Medicinal Products, pre-approved
reimbursement for use of a medicinal product outside the approved
indications of the marketing authorization is not allowed.

For both Ariana and Asma it was critical that their respective business plans get accepted. While Araina was trying to win the investors for her start up, Asma wanted her much awaited promotion from the board of directors. While Ariana did crack the deal,sadly Asma didn‚Äôt.

The UAE has implemented a major initiative to update its laws and procedures, by adopting best international practice to encourage foreign direct investment and trade more generally with the UAE. There was a new Companies Law in 2015, a Bankruptcy Law in 2016, tax laws in 2017, and a Federal Arbitration Law and Foreign Direct Investment Law in 2018. In addition to that, Federal law No. 18 of 2017 amended the Companies Law to allow the authorities to dis-apply the requirement for 51% local ownership of UAE companies. A clear message is being sent to the world that the UAE is open for business, there is a strong modern structure in place in a form which is familiar to the big international players and which will serve their business needs.

Cheques are the most commonly used commercial paper in the UAE not only because they are used as a method of payment, but also, because they are the only commercial paper secured by the provisions of the UAE‚Äôs Penal Code (the ‚ÄúPenal Code ‚ÄĚ)to enhance confidence in cheques as a form of payment. As a result, cheques have been used for decades in the local market as a form of security.

C. David
DeBenedetti and Bartosz BagieŇĄski, DMS partners, took part in the 13 th
annual General Meeting of the Polish Chamber of Commerce in Japan and Polish
Seminar on ‚ÄúNew Possibilities of the Bilateral Economic Relations between Japan
and Poland under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)‚ÄĚ.

Arbitration practice and procedure has developed rapidly in the UAE, and the courts now take a far more pro-active role in supporting the arbitration process and enforcing arbitral awards. This movement can be seen progressively in Cassation Court judgments over the past ten years and is now recognised in Federal Law No. 6 of 2018 on Arbitration (the ‚Äúnew Arbitration Law‚ÄĚ), which repealed and replaced the old arbitration law in Articles 203 to 218 of Federal Law No. 11 of 1992. The old law did not reflect international best practice and left too much scope for the award debtor to avoid making payment

C. David DeBenedetti, attorney of the State of New
York and DMS partner gave an interview to a Spanish journal "Expansi√≥n‚ÄĚ. In his
conversation with Victor Moreno, he touched on the changes on the market of
legal services that occurred as a result of development of new technologies and
said that DMS attempts to fully adjust to these new conditions. Based on the
analysis of the M&A market in Poland and internationally in recent years,
C. David DeBenedetti guaranties that despite a drop in investments in Poland,
the M&A market will continue to grow while ¬†DMS, as a member of
Globalaw, expects intensified work in this area.